Lascarides, A. and N. Asher [2007] Segmented Discourse Representation Theory: Dynamic Semantics with Discourse Structure, in H. Bunt and R. Muskens (eds.) Computing Meaning: Volume 3, pp87--124, Springer.
This paper motivates and describes a dynamic semantic theory of discourse interpretation called SDRT, which uses rhetorical relations to model the semantics/pragmatics interface. We describe the syntax and dynamic semantics of the language in which logical forms are represented, a separate but related language in which semantic underspecification is expressed as partial descriptions of logical forms, and a glue logic which uses commonsense reasoning to construct logical forms, relating the semantically underspecified forms that are generated by the grammar to their pragmatically preferred interpretations. We apply the framework to some examples involving anaphora and other kinds of semantic ambiguities.
@incollection{lascarides:asher:2007,
author = {Alex Lascarides and Nicholas Asher},
year = {2007},
title = {Segmented Discourse
Representation Theory: Dynamic Semantics with Discourse Structure},
editor = {H.\ Bunt and R.\ Muskens},
booktitle = {Computing Meaning: Volume 3},
publisher = {Kluwer Academic Publishers},
pages = {87--124}
}